Criminal turned Double Agent: Eddie Chapman

Eddie Chapman was a British criminal turned double agent during World War II. Prior to the war, he was a member of a “jelly gang” which was a gang that specialized in robbing safes using the explosive gelignite to blow them open. Chapman was eventually caught by the police in 1939 and was sentenced to two years in jail (his sentence later increased due to him trying to escape in September of 1938). Chapman remained in prison after the Germans had invaded and occupied the Channel Islands in July of 1940. 

Life on the Channel Islands had been harsh for Chapman and he wished to return to Britain, to accomplish this he volunteered to be a spy for the Germans and his request was eventually accepted by Abwehr (the German secret service). The authorities of Abwehr believed him to be an ideal candidate for a spy due to his connections with the criminal underworld which gave Chapman the ability to recruit more spies. Another of Chapman’s assets was his experience working with explosives which would allow him to carry out acts of sabotage for the Germans.

Chapman trained in German-occupied France for a year before being dropped by parachute into Cambridgeshire on December 16, 1942. His task was to attack (and hopefully destroy) the De Havilland aircraft factory which was located in Hertfordshire. 

Chapman, however, did not consult the criminal underworld like he had told the Germans, instead, he went straight to the police and MI5 (a security service in Britain) and turned himself in. He told authorities about his experience training in France as well as the missions that were given to him by the Germans. Chapman offered to become a double agent and work with the British and thus became Agent ZIGZAG. He helped obtain more information from Germany. Chapman also told the Germans through the radio that he was preparing his attack on the De Havilland Factory (a factory that produced aircrafts) and following this a fake sabotage occurred. 

The “attack” occurred during the night of January 29 and the early morning of January 30 in 1943. Chapman and others who were helping him made it so that the factory would appear as though a large bomb had exploded inside the factory’s power plant to German aircrafts. Using wood and papier-mache they made bomb-damaged transformers and to make it look as though buildings had been destroyed, tarpaulin and corrugated iron sheets were posed as remains of walls and roofs. In addition rubble and debris were dispersed around the to make it look like they had been blown there during the “explosion”. The MIF also helped to make this attack seem legitimate by planting a fake story in the Daily express stating how there had been “an explosion at a factory on the outskirts of London”. The ruse had been a success which garnered German trust of Chapman, which allowed him to obtain more confidential information from Germany. It also made false reports of troop movements and ship buildings believable to the Germans.

During the war, Chapman was never figured out to be a double agent. He was so trusted that he was awarded the Iron Cross (Germany’s highest honor) for his work for the Abwehr.

Chapman returned to Britain in June 1944 and has written several books about his experience being a double agent. 

Sources

https://www.mi5.gov.uk/eddie-chapman 

https://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/20/world/eddie-chapman-83-safecracker-and-spy.html